


Blissful Memories

by Rainey_Arlet



Category: Peanuts
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:40:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23259301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rainey_Arlet/pseuds/Rainey_Arlet
Summary: When he opens the door and sees a familiar face smiling at him, with just the right hint of smugness, he suddenly realizes that this may well be the last time he sees her.
Relationships: Schroeder/Lucy van Pelt
Comments: 3
Kudos: 57





	Blissful Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Lucy visits Schroeder for what might be the final time.

When Schroeder hears the familiar ‘rat-tat-tat’ on his front door, disturbing him from his piano practice, a strange, melancholy feeling washes over him; the way the summer rain used to pour down and wash away the well-trodden soil of their neighborhood’s baseball field.

When he opens the door and sees a familiar face smiling at him, with just the right hint of smugness, he suddenly realizes that this may well be the last time.

  
He’s just about to become sentimental when he’s shoved aside by that familiar face. The bane of his life, crabby fussbudget Lucy van Pelt pushes past him and walks right into the house, heading straight towards the piano room like she owns the place. Schroeder simply closes the door; it’s been almost fifteen years since Lucy started letting herself into his house, and he knows that it’s impossible to chuck her out. After all, Lucy van Pelt always gets what she wants.

When he walks into the piano room, Lucy has already closed the piano lid shut and perched herself on his beautiful grand piano.

“Get off my piano, Lucy,” he says, knowing full well that she won’t.

Legs dangling from the edge, she smiles at him in that sickeningly sweet way she always does when she sees him.

“I’m your muse, Schroeder. I’m here to _inspire_ you.”

“Here to _bother_ me, more like,” he mumbles.

Rolling his eyes, Schroeder sits on the piano bench, and absentmindedly plays a few chords at random.

“Lucy, today is your last day in town,” he says dryly, “Do you really have to spend this precious day interrupting my practice?”

Lucy simply laughs, and crosses her legs coyly.

“I’m doing you a _favor_ , Schroeder. Did _Beethoven_ ever have pretty girls hanging around his piano?” she says, batting her eyelashes.

“No, Beethoven never had any crabby girls sitting on his piano.”

“Hey, I’m not that crabby!”

“You’re the crabbiest person to ever live, Lucy. _And_ you’re the world’s biggest fussbudget!”

Lucy huffs, then smiles slyly.

“Well, I’m sure Beethoven never expected to see little boys with _hundreds_ of statues of him in their closets.”

Schroeder flushes, remembering his manic obsession to the famous composer and his closet full of Beethoven busts. With a triumphant smirk, Lucy nods at him in an irritating fashion and gestures at the piano keys.

“Well? Aren’t you going to play anything? Perhaps a little _Beethoven_?”

With a long sigh, Schroeder cracks his knuckles and half-heartedly starts playing the opening of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

“You’re leaving for college tomorrow, Lucy,” he says, without pausing his playing. “Don’t you have anything better to be doing?”

“There’s nothing better than coming to see the love of my life for the last time!”

Normally, he would have been irritated at such a comment. But somehow, today, it sticks to him.

“This isn’t the _last time_ , you know.”

Lucy is oddly quiet for a moment. When Schroeder pauses his playing and looks up, he sees her smiling wryly, eyes fixated on a distance.

“You’re moving to a completely different country for your career, Schroeder,” she says, “You know this is the last time.”

A still silence lingers in the air. Suddenly, like in one of those cheesy romance movies they play in the Saturday pictures, memories of their shared childhood flash before Schroeder’s eyes: sunny summer afternoons on the baseball field, wild adventures with Charlie Brown’s crazy dog, and of course, the countless hours they spent in this very piano room, with Lucy leaning on his precious toy piano with its painted-on black keys. Even that one time when she threw his piano in the sewer, and the other time when she threw it up the kite-eating tree, and the many, many times he got back at her by throwing her off his piano, feel like blissful memories. Their relationship has been turbulent ever since they were kids, full of rocky ups and downs (mostly downs), but in the end, they’ve made it out as friends. The fact that now, they’re both grown up and ready to leave the neighborhood they’ve spent their whole lives in, hits Schroeder like a truck; Lucy is no longer childishly infatuated with him, and he has even learned to get along with her. They’re all grown up now, he realizes; they’re not the little kids they used to be. It’s an odd, strange epiphany; a confusing mixture of melancholy and sadness and surprise. It’s wonderful really, and he’s happy that things have turned out well for both of them, but now he won’t be able to see Lucy leaning on his piano and disturbing his practice anymore, and for some reason, that fact alone is what makes him realize that their childhoods are really over.

The strange feeling keeps washing over him in ripples, and he can’t quite put his finger on it. He’s never been good at words and feelings. But it reminds him of the 2nd movement of Beethoven’s ‘Pathetique’; bittersweet, melancholy, and almost sorrowful, but beautiful all the same, tranquil and turbulent simultaneously.

“Well,” Lucy opens her mouth, finally breaking the silence, “When you become a famous piano soloist, and have huge concerts overseas, will you call me after each one and tell me you love me?”

Schroeder looks at Lucy with her playful smile, and remembering the crabby little girl in the blue dress she used to be, he grins.

“Don’t bet on it.”

When the sun has long set, and it’s too late for Lucy to stay longer, Schroeder walks her to her house and kisses her goodbye on the cheek. And it’s just the way her surprised smile lingers in his head long after she’s gone, that makes him realize that deep down, he has always been quite fond of the bane-of-his-life, forever-crabby fussbudget, Lucy Van Pelt.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't actually ship these two, but I just thought it might be fun to write something short about them.
> 
> Thank you for reading! Feedback and criticism much appreciated!


End file.
